Sunken Village: After Evictions, Ethnic Vietnamese Homes Underwater

by Keat Soriththeavy and Fiona Kelliher

ROLEA BA’IER DISTRICT, Kampong Chhnang — Four years ago, Vuen Phouk Thoung was promised a plot of land in a new neighborhood and a garment factory job nearby. Now his home is submerged in floodwater so high he spends all day and night in a hammock suspended from the ceiling.

“I don’t know what to do now,” said Thoung, 35, as he sat cross-legged on the wooden plank he constructed to swim in and out of his house. “I’ll just live like this, here.”

Thoung lives on a 40-hectare site in Kampong Chhnang where about 150 ethnic Vietnamese families were relocated after being evicted from their floating homes on the Tonle Sap starting in 2018. Ethnic Vietnamese people number an estimated 400,000 in Cambodia, but many lack citizenship rights and are unable to own property or access public services, according to Minority Rights Group International.

All around Thoung, houses were filled with dirty floodwater about 2 meters high. Children floated in rubber barrels, surrounded by piles of trash and in one case, a small dead animal. Families had rigged elaborate rope systems to keep their belongings safe on their second floors, but a motorcycle, children’s bikes and a ceiling fan were floating in the water anyway.

read more https://vodenglish.news/sunken-village-after-evictions-ethnic-vietnamese-homes-underwater/